UMUR
"The Winterlong" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act God Macabre. The album was released in December 1993 by the German label Mangled Beyond Recognition Records. Relapse Records reissued "The Winterlong" in a remixed and remastered version in February 2002. The reissue features the three tracks from the "Consumed by Darkness (1991)" EP which was originally released under the Macabre End monicker. "The Winterlong" was recorded at Sunlight Studios between Christmas and New Year´s 1991.
The Winterlong is actually a posthumous album release as God Macabre already split-up in February/ March of 1992 after bassist Thomas Johansson and drummer Niklas Nilsson had left the band during 1991 ( especially the latter proved to be difficult to replace). Niklas Nilsson recorded the drums for the album as a session member.
The music on "The Winterlong" is classic old school Swedish death metal albeit of the more sophisticated kind if you ask me. Not that sophisticated should be interpreted as being progressive, technical or anything like that. The album is certainly brutal and raw old school Swedish death metal at its core. The vocals are especially brutal ( yet decipherable) and very enjoyable if you ask me. But in addition to the classic Swedish death metal values the album features some really great guitar solos ( again not technically impressive but just really suiting for the music), atmosphere enhancing keyboard backing and other details that keeps the music interesting throughout. Legendary Swedish death metal acts like Entombed and Dismember come to mind but when the band is most doomy there are also nods toward "Lost Paradise (1990)" era Paradise Lost. I´d also mention the first two albums by Edge of Sanity as references.
The musicianship is tight and as mentioned above I really enjoy the guitar work on the album, but the powerful drumming and the very convincing growls also deserve a mention.
The production is a classic Sunlight Studios production but less raw/ muddy than most other early nineties productions from that studio.
"The Winterlong" is one of those albums that deserves the "forgotten gem" tag. If you ask me I´m sure God Macabre could have gone on to become one of the greater acts in the genre had they continued to play, because "The Winterlong" definitely deserves a place among the best old school Swedish death metal albums out there. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved. This is mandatory listening for fans of the genre.